Civic

Mani C (name changed), a 16-year-old resident of Ambal Nagar, Chennai is irregular to school, but he regularly visits the TASMAC outlet on Jawaharlal Nehru Road as soon as the shutters are raised at 12 noon. His peers and acquaintances have dropped out of school, having taken to the liquor bottle even earlier. If his mother berates him for choosing the wrong path, he says, “I am just doing what Appa (father) does.” The mother runs out of words to convince him. Mani started revolting when he was 14. It was yet another day when his father had beaten him…

ITO skywalk re-ignites Delhi-Centre tussle The latest battle ground between the Union government and Delhi is the newly inaugurated 400-metre ITO skywalk in Central Delhi. The skywalk was opened to the public by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri last week. In his inaugural address he accused the Delhi state government for delaying the project by stalling the 20% contribution from the state for the project for over a year. The Rs 54.84-crore project was conceptualised as one that would be completed with 80% funding from the centre and the remaining from the state. The Delhi government in turn has accused…

In a city like Chennai where public transportation is not really optimal in terms of supporting last mile connectivity, share autos are the cheapest and easiest option and have naturally emerged as the common man’s preferred mode of transport. But the advantages of this intermediate public transport or para transit cannot override the range of problems faced by commuters and even share auto drivers themselves. In Part 1 of the series on share autos, we discussed why share autos are necessary, especially in view of the demand surplus that crowded MTC buses are not able to meet. But commuters list…

It was among the first PILs that was filed by the Citizens' Action Forum and it wasn’t even their first course of action! For a group that is often accused of being trigger-happy with the judiciary, CAF's petition against the Master Plan 2015 was a last recourse, after they had exhausted all other options.   When the BDA released the draft of its Master Plan 2015, it proposed rapid commercialisation of largely residential areas in Bangalore, allowing for almost unchecked change of land use. Bangalore had begun to boom by the start of the millennium. The rise of the IT…

Delhi ups ante on anti-pollution drive An emissions study by the Pune-based System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Research (SAFAR) under the ministry of earth sciences (MoES) has identified vehicles and industries as the biggest contributors to particulate matter (PM) 2.5 emissions in Delhi-NCR. Before the report was officially out, the Delhi government has already started a crackdown on unfit and polluting vehicles in Delhi, due to the onset of winter and impending Diwali festivities, to curb air pollution. Over 300 vehicles have come under the Transport Department's scanner, for polluting emissions and  lack of emission  certificates. As many as…

Imagine a walk on the Kotturpuram bridge on any morning or evening - a glance below provides a picturesque sight: people shouting in happiness, their row boats on the tranquil waters of Adyar River, free from traffic. The happiness on their faces is evident; it makes you feel the joy of rowing. You cannot help thinking how beautiful the journey of these rowers would be -- navigating in the seemingly serene waters, encountering fish and feeling the cool breeze. But the reality is quite different.  And ugly. The breeze carries the stench of sewage, often unbearably foul. And what rowers…

More water for Chennai residents Chennaites have reason to rejoice. The water table in 8 out of 15 zones have seen a slight rise  by 0.68m. While areas of Madhavaram, Ambattur, Annangar, Teynampet, Valsaravakkam, Adyar, Perungudi and Sholinganallur has seen increase,  North Chennai areas like Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar have seen decrease in ground water levels. Meanwhile, the city’s water department has identified 13 lakes and 5 quarries to augment water supply. A special team has been formed at the Metro Water board which will work with PWD and institutions like IIT-M and Anna University…

Shifting from the slick, tree-lined Vasanthnagar to the mud and gravel of HRBR in East Bengaluru did it. Building a dream house in a nightmare colony with no roads or facilities dealt quite a shock to D.S. Rajshekhar ten years ago. It was then that he felt that unless he stepped forward and joined like-minded citizens to show some fighting spirit, he would continue to live in a perpetually 'under-construction' colony. His Residents' Welfare Association referred him to Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), which was a simple association of rather indignant residents. It was an idea that was seeded in 2007. It had…

A recent survey by the Information and Resource Center for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has shed light on the precarious living conditions and lack of access to basic services by a majority of homeless children in the city. The city's homeless have long been relegated to the fringes and left to fend for themselves. Efforts to increase the number of night shelters and other services available to them has moved at glacial pace. Understanding the services available and availed by the urban homeless, especially children, becomes vital to improve facilities and service delivery. The IRCDUC survey examined eleven parameters including…

Defunct or non-operational street lights are among the most important civic concerns for citizens of Chennai. Even though the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) claims to have been taking efforts to modernise the street light system, lapses are abundant. The problem has many different dimensions to it: absence of street lights in localities maintained by departments or bodies other than GCC, continued prevalence of sodium vapour bulbs, and lack of uniformity in operation of street lights across different parts of the city. In localities such as Thiru Vi Ka Industrial Estate and Ambal Nagar (maintained by SIDCO), Nandambakkam (maintained by St Thomas Mount…